A Cycle Touring Expedition Around The World

Archive for the ‘Guatemala’ Category

Distance: 110.1 km Ride time: 6:04:37 Average: 18.1 km/h Max speed: 64.4 km/h Total: 37187 km Guatemala had turned into one of my favourite countries. I could have stayed much longer, but it was time to head towards the border with Belize. Heavy clouds were hanging over Flores as I left in the morning, and [ Read More ]

After the busy cycling days from Guatemala City and visiting Tikal, a couple of office days was needed in order to keep up with everything. I was spending the nights with Willy and his nice family in the San Benito neighborhood of town. During the day I would cycle over to the Flores island setting [ Read More ]

I don’t do this very often, going to a tourist attraction with entrance fees, guides, and everything. My philosophy is that the best things in life are for free. On my trip that means cycling through typical villages, chatting with locals in a restaurant, and sometimes even staying with friends (or friends of friends) like [ Read More ]

Distance: 95.3 km Ride time: 4:56:23 Average: 19.3 km/h Max speed: 49.7 km/h Total: 37074 km The hotel I found last night had seemed like a good choice when I arrived. Later in the night not so much; the neighbor was a disco and they fired up a very impressive sound system at 9 pm [ Read More ]

Distance: 96.3 km Ride time: 4:57:33 Average: 19.4 km/h Max speed: 53.3 km/h Total: 36976 km After breakfast in the very local village of Raxruha I was heading towards… another very local village. I feel like I’m far away from the big city life out here. In the beginning of the day I was still [ Read More ]

Distance: 110.2 km Ride time: 6:52:22 Average: 16.0 km/h Max speed: 59.0 km/h Total: 36877 km Another one of these days where you would look at the map and think: OK, I’m descending from 1400 to 200 m during the day, easy cycling. Not at all! My GPS says I climbed an impressive 2400 m [ Read More ]

Distance: 69.0 km Ride time: 3:51:05 Average: 17.9 km/h Max speed: 52.9 km/h Total: 36765 km I woke up to the sound of the river and the song of birds in my tent – very happy to be camping again. This is true freedom, riding your bike into a beautiful mountain region, sleep in your [ Read More ]

Distance: 71.8 km Ride time: 5:30:47 Average: 13.0 km/h Max speed: 50.0 km/h Total: 36694 km Being in the mountains of Guatemala very much feels like being back in South America. The concept of a flat road doesn’t really exist here. It is either up or down, and today mostly up. A big climb from [ Read More ]

Distance: 107.8 km Ride time: 5:54:56 Average: 18.2 km/h Max speed: 58.7 km/h Total: 36621 km As I left Juan Carlos’ house in the morning I only had a few kilometers to cycle before making a right turn away from the Panamerican Highway. Since my new plan includes visiting Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula in [ Read More ]

My prediction that my stay in Guatemala City would be something to remember certainly turned out to be true! First of all, just staying in Juan Carlos’ beautiful house was a pleasure in itself. My room was like a 5 star hotel room – very much the other end of the scale compared to the [ Read More ]